Back to Index

International relations
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted fromWeekly Media Update 2005-3
Monday January 17^th – Sunday 23^rd January 2005

THE visit by Iranian leader Seyed Mohammad Khatami during the week provided more evidence of the government media’s selective reporting, designed to portray Zimbabwe as co-existing harmoniously with the international community.

As a result, these media deliberately ignored informing their audiences on other pertinent international developments that appeared to contradict this stance.

To endorse the ‘Look East’ policy, ZTV quoted eight government voices, 10 selected members of the public, one business analyst, two unnamed analysts and two reporters’ accounts, who all approved of the policy saying it would improve the country’s economic fortunes.

Khatami was also quoted expressing his support for Zimbabwe.

Similarly, of the 14 stories Radio Zimbabwe carried on international relations, eight (57%) were positive accounts of Khatami’s visit, two (14%) on Pakistan’s trade expo, three (21%) on Mkapa’s visit and one on Mudenge’s response to Rice’s statements.

The government Press adopted a similar trend. Eight of its 10 stories on Zimbabwe’s international relations reported glowingly on the purported economic benefits the country would reap from its friendship with Iran in particular and from its ‘Look East’ policy in general.

But while the government media depicted the signing of several co-operation agreements between Iran and Zimbabwe as proof of the good bilateral relations between the two, there was hardly an attempt to fully inform their audiences on what these agreements really entailed and what measurable benefits the country would gain.

For instance, none of the government Press solicited comments from economists to give informed interpretations of these political and economic developments as illustrated here (fig.1).

Fig. 1 Voice distribution in the government Press

Notably, all foreign diplomats’ comments used in the stories were exclusively from the visiting Iranian delegation.

So engrossed in endorsing government’s ‘Look East’ policy were the government Press that they ignored reports highlighting growing concerns by some members of the international community over Zimbabwe’s deteriorating situation.

Like their broadcasting counterparts, they suppressed Rice’s criticism of Zimbabwe and only reported it in the context of Mudenge’s reaction to the issue. In fact, their hypocrisy in handling the matter manifested itself in the Chronicle (20/1) not only burying the story on Rice in its foreign news page, but even removing Zimbabwe from the list of the six tyrannies identified by the US.

Further, all government media ignored the ANC secretary-general, Kgalema Montlante’s criticism of the government over its ill treatment of the MDC. Neither did they report on the pending fact-finding missions to the country by the South African trade union congress, COSATU, or by SADC emissaries.

These issues only found space in the private media, which largely ignored Khatami’s visit. In fact, Khatami only received attention in two stories that appeared in The Daily Mirror.

Otherwise, the paper and its sister Sunday paper gave greater coverage to the disquiet expressed by America, the ANC and COSATU over the political developments in the country as illustrated by four stories they carried on the matters. The Financial Gazette also carried three reports on the issues while Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa carried seven stories each on the topics. Inexplicably, the Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard ignored them.

But while the government media was biased in its sourcing and presentation of the Iranian leader’s visit, the private media was not. They balanced the international community’s observations with those from ZANU PF, the opposition and independent commentators as illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3.

Fig 2 Voice distribution in the private Press

Fig 3 Voice distribution in the private radio stations

Visit the MMPZ fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP